JOAQUIN RODRIGO
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez / Fantasía para un gentilhombre (with de Falla - 'Three Cornered Hat' excerpts) Carlos Bonell (guitar), Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Charles Dutoit [ Decca Virtuoso / CD - released 27/Oct/2011 ] "Carlos Bonell plays the cadenza of the Adagio of the Concierto de Aranjuez most sensitively, and the weight of the orchestral contribution is judged to a nicety throughout." (Gramophone) |
GEORGES BIZET
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Bizet - Carmen & L'Arlesienne suites Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit [ Decca The Full Works / CD - released 25/Jun/2018 ] This is a re-issue of an outstanding "demonstration" disc featuring colourful French orchestral music....playing that is both elegant and vivid in superb, demonstration-worthy sound. |
MODEST MUSSORGSKY / NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mussorgsky: Pictures at an exhibition & Night on a Bare Mountain (with works by Rimsky-Korsakov) Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit [ Decca Eclipse / CD Box Set - released 20/Jul/1995 ] Essential Russian Masterpieces performed by the Montreal Symphony conducted by Charles Dutoit |
VARIOUS COMPOSERS
Holiday Classics: 5 CDs with a distinct holiday flavour National Philharmonic, Richard Bonynge / Montreal Symphony, Charles Dutoit / Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel / Detroit Symphony, Antal Dorati, etc [ Decca / 5 CD Box Set - released 25/Nov/2009 ] A specially priced five CD set featuring a talent of top Decca recording artists like Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Julius Katchen, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dame Joan Sutherland, Willi Boskovsky, Pascal Roge and the Academy of St Martins in the Fields. |
FRANZ LISZT
Liszt: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Hungarian Fantasy / etc Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano) / Orchestre symphonique de Montreal / Charles Dutoit [ Decca Australian Eloquence / CD - released 1/Dec/2006 ] "Indeed, I have only praise. Each of the four works here is well characterized, and the typically Lisztian varying tempos are spot on, unrushed but never deliberate and always leading naturally from one to the next. Climactic passages are powerful,... |
SAINT-SAENS
Symphony No.3 in C minor, Op.78 'Organ Symphony' (with Poulenc - Organ Concerto) Peter Hurford (organ) / Orchestre symphonique de Montreal / Philharmonia Orchestra / Charles Dutoit [ Decca originals / CD - released 20/Aug/2006 ] 'The Organ Concerto, recorded in St Alban's Cathedral, is successful; Peter Hurford's mastery in Bach serves him well in its more darkly baroque aspects, but he is equally idiomatic in the uninhibitedly bouncy passages.' Gramophone |
JOAQUIN RODRIGO / MANUEL de FALLA
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez / de Falla: El amor vrujo & Noches en los jardines de Espana Carlos Bonell (guitar), Alicia de Larrocha (piano) / Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Charles Dutoit, London Philharmonic, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos [ Decca Ovation / CD - released 27/Oct/2011 ] "Carlos Bonell plays the cadenza of the Adagio of the Concierto de Aranjuez most sensitively, and the weight of the orchestral contribution is judged to a nicety throughout." (Gramophone) |
FREDERIC CHOPIN
Chopin: Piano Concertos 1 & 2 Martha Argerich (piano) / Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal / Charles Dutoit [ Warner Classics / CD - released 14/Oct/2007 ] "In Martha Argerich's newest coupling her pianism remains as mercurial and her virtuosity as incadendescent as ever; indeed she has rarely sounded as captivating or characterful. Admirers of Argerich need not hesitate." (3 Stars Penguin Stereo Guide |
DEBUSSY
La Mer / Nocturnes / Jeux / Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Charles Dutoit [ Decca 20th Century / CD - released 4/Jun/2012 ] " Dutoit is one of the world's foremost interpreters, and his approach to Debussy's orchestral works is lively and vibrant, as demonstrated in his effervescent readings of La mer, Jeux, and Nocturnes." (AllMusic.com) |
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
An introduction to Shostakovich (Incls 'Piano Concerto No 2' & 'Symphony No 5') Dmitri Shostakovich Jnr (piano) / I Musici de Montreal / Scottish National Orchestra / Neeme Jarvi / Maxim Shostakovich [ Chandos Intro / CD - released 1/Aug/2006 ] 'Neeme Järvi's understanding of the bleak world inhabited by Shostakovich's symphonies continues to impress. Chandos's sound is superb as always.' American Recird Guide |
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN / JOHANNES BRAHMS
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Brahms: Piano Quintet Glenn Gould (piano) / Montreal String Quartet / Columbia Symphony Orchestra / Leonard Bernstein [ Naxos Historical / CD - released 1/Oct/2009 ] Glenn Gould played Beethoven's piano concertos from the beginning of his short concert career, this recording being made when he was 24, the same age as the composer when he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2. |
EDOUARD LALO / CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS
Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole / Cello Concerto / Saint-Saens: Violin Concerto No. 1 Kyung Wha Chung (violin) Orchestre Symphonique De Montreal,Charles Dutoit / Lynn Harrell (cello) Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly [ Decca Ovation / CD - released 12/Oct/1993 ] Original recordings from 1981 and 1986 (Lalo Cello) |
SAINT-SAENS
Essential Saint-Saens (Incl Symphony No. 3, 'Organ' in C minor & Danse macabre) Marilyn Horne. Joshua Bell. Pascal Roge. Cristina Ortiz / Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Opera Orchestra [ Double Decca / 2 CD - released 15/May/2004 ] "This is very good value, with consistently fine playing and recording" (Gramophone on the piano concerto) |
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Schumann: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 3 (Arr. for string orchestra) Montreal Players / Jean-Philippe Tremblay [ Naxos / CD - released 6/Nov/2006 ] "These (arrangements) were done with tremendous respect for Schumann's work. It is an experiment and I had no desire whatever to change in any way the composer's original vision." |
Montreal Players/Tremblay
Schumann: String Quartets 1, 3 [ Naxos / CD - released 2/Oct/2006 ] |
DEBUSSY
Orchestral Music (Inc La Mer, Jeux, Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune) Montreal Symphony Orchestra / Charles Dutoit [ Double Decca / 2 CD - released 1/Jan/2001 ] THe marvellously pictorial music of Debussy captured by Charles Dutoit |
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker [plus Sleeping Beauty: Aurora's Wedding] Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, Charles Dutoit [ Decca Eloquence / 2 CD - released 1/Nov/2012 ] A favourite ballet all round the year, but a perennial at Christmas-time, Tchaikovsky's evergreen Nutcracker has never perhaps received as luxurious a recorded performance as that of Charles Dutoit and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. |
CHAUSSON
Symphonie, Piano Quartet, Poemes & Concert Pascal Roge (piano) Chantal Juillet (violin) Pierre Amoyal (violin) / Quatuor Ysaye. Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal. Charles Dutoit [ Double Decca / 2 CD - released 1/Apr/2005 ] Chausson's musical output is not vast and his career was short-lived. His earliest works date from the late 1870s and his last were produced shortly before he was killed as a result of a cycling accident in 1899. |
Of Montreal
Paralytic Stalks [ Polyvinyl / CD - released 20/Feb/2012 ] Lyrically, 'Paralytic Stalks' contains confessions of an infinitely more personal nature than anything Kevin Barnes has written since 2007's 'Hissing Fauna...' |
GUSTAV MAHLER
Mahler: Orchestral Songs Christian Gerhaher (baritone), Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Kent Nagano (conductor) [ Sony Classical / CD - released 19/Aug/2013 ] "Admirers of Gerhaher's lieder singing won't need any encouragement to listen to this disc. They'll marvel once again at the astonishing range of colour and inflection he applies to every phrase" (Gramophone Award Nomination 2015 - Solo Recital) |